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Once-Mothballed Taurus Is Back on Stage at Ford

DEARBORN, Mich. — After a 20-year run, the Ford Taurus was headed for the scrap heap in 2007. The automaker planned to retire the name, and call its new sedan the Ford Five Hundred instead.

But Ford’s new chief executive, Alan R. Mulally, reversed course, figuring the Taurus name still had value, even though its reputation had faltered as the car became best known as a staple of rental car fleets.

Those instincts will be tested when a new version of the Taurus begins arriving in dealer showrooms next week. How consumers respond will answer a big question for Ford: can it make money on a full-size sedan?

“This a real acid test for our product strategy,” said James Farley, Ford’s head of global marketing.

Ford says it will exercise a new sense of discipline with the Taurus. Rather than aiming for a home-run product that sells hundreds of thousands of units — and then be forced to offer incentives to persuade shoppers to buy them all — Ford plans to build lower numbers of the Taurus. That way, it might be able to avoid steep discounts so it can turn a profit on each one.

The advertising campaign, which begins next week on national television, focuses on technology. One of the new features is the “blind spot information system,” sold as an add-on, that uses radar to detect vehicles that can’t be seen in the mirror. Another is the so-called “eco-boost” engine that provides additional power without using more fuel.

Ford’s marketing managers spent a month last year interviewing three dozen of the car’s engineers to determine which features might be most compelling to potential buyers.

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Fords advertising campaign for the Taurus focuses on technology. This is a print ad featuring the 365 horsepower engine.

“The design speaks for itself, but we’ve got the goods to show when it comes to features,” said Matt VanDyke, director of Ford brand marketing.

The company has also produced a series of Web videos that compare how, for example, the paint job on the Taurus holds up in comparison to a Lexus luxury sedan.

Art Spinella, president of CNW Market Research, said that his firm had conducted five consumer focus groups on Taurus, and the results had been promising.

“It has come across extremely well,” he said. “I think the car is going to build its following slowly, but people like it as a product.”

Ford will observe the introduction of the Taurus next week at its Chicago assembly plant, where the car is being built. It is one of the few American auto factories that actually has a new product coming out.

Ford’s rollout of a new vehicle sets it apart from Chrysler and General Motors, both of which canceled or delayed several models in the months leading up to their recent bankruptcy filings.